Review of Sabata

Sabata (1969)
5/10
One of the better Westerns of the Spaghetti Variety but a long way behind the Dollars trilogy
4 July 2009
I just finished watching this film and I must say I had mixed feelings. I have seen quite a few Spaghetti Westerns such as The Lee Van Cleef Vehicles Gods Gun, The Grand Duel, Gunlaw (AKA.Day of Anger), The Good Die First, Death Rides a Horse, plus The Dollars Trilogy, Madron & Once upon a time in the west etc.

I would have said this film would occupy the middle ground between the Excellent Dollars Trilogy, Once upon a time in the West, Death Rides a Horse and the total Rubbish such as The Good Die First & Gods Gun. Sabata was almost as good as Gunlaw A.K.A Day of Anger.

For me Van Cleef was very good, but the rest of the cast was somewhat lacking in any real charisma. Banjo was probably the next best thing in the film but to me did not really look the part, The movie was also too humorous for my liking and including acrobats was going too far to take seriously, although I suspect this was not to be taken all that seriously.

Linda Vera was absolutely stunning. For someone with beauty of that magnitude they should have increased her part and maybe made her a Femme Fatale type character ! The lead villain Stengel was decidedly poor and really could have been dealt with a lot quicker and easier as he did not come across as somebody to be feared. The various attempts on Sabata's life and him demanding more money each time also became quite tiresome, it seems the script writers ran out of ideas.

All in all though this film was entertaining and I would give it a 5.5 out of 10.
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